


Flower Language 101

by yoshiimiitsu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Florist Kuroo, Flowers, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25990552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoshiimiitsu/pseuds/yoshiimiitsu
Summary: “I need the most insulting flowers you have.”Well, that’s something. "Could you elaborate a little on that?”“Yeah like – “I hate you”, “you’re the worst”, “I’m really mad at you”. “Fuck you” flowers, you get me?"---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Florist Kuroo receives an unusual request from an eccentric customer [re-posted and edited story from my previous account].
Relationships: Bokuto Koutarou/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 10
Kudos: 139





	Flower Language 101

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maiuzan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maiuzan/gifts).



> Hi! This is a repost from my old account, northkaii. The penname at the time of posting would have been iwazilla or fukurodaniace, I can't remember when I changed from one to the other. Story based on the prompt "Person A owns a flower shop and Person B comes storming in one day, slaps 20 bucks on the counter and says “How do I passive-aggressively say fuck you in flower?”"
> 
> Dedicated to my best bro Sophie <333
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** I do not own these lovely boys. That right goes to Haruichi Furudate.

Kuroo hums softly to himself as he trims rose petals, working methodically through each branch. The sun shines weakly outside, intermittently lighting up the store before being hidden again behind gray clouds, and strong winds rattle the windows in their frames. Tokyo had been hit with powerful storms over the last week as summer very visibly gave way to autumn; Kuroo had lost count of the number of umbrellas he’d disposed of, throwing their broken frames into the nearest trashcan as he ran the rest of the way home.

Still, the summer had been great for him on the whole so he can’t complain. Normally he only worked in the florists as a part-time deal, lending his uncle a hand during weekends or busy holiday periods. But over the summer break he’d taken over management of the store full-time, his uncle having travelled to the north of the country to take care of his ailing mother (Kuroo’s grandmother). The pay had been good when Kuroo worked part-time, helping to sustain his college lifestyle, but the amount he’d earnt over the summer was more than enough to keep him comfortable across the entirety of his final year. 

A small bell tinkles in the background, indicating the arrival of a new customer. Placing the shears to one side, Kuroo removes his gloves. 

“Just a minute!” he calls out, moving quickly to the sink to wash his hands. The gloves do a great job of protecting him from cuts like they need to but they sure smell bad. He glances into the mirror, running a hand through his hair in a futile attempt to tidy it a bit, and leaves the backroom with a bright smile on his face. 

“Hi there! How can I help you?” 

The customer, a man in his early twenties with salt and pepper hair sticking out in all directions, turns from where he’s observing some tiny snapdragons and marches to the counter. 

“I need the most insulting flowers you have.” 

Well, that’s something. Kuroo’s certainly had some interesting bouquet requests but this one is a contender for one of the strangest.

“Insulting flowers? Could you elaborate a little on that?” 

“Yeah like – “I hate you”, “you’re the worst”, “I’m really mad at you”. “Fuck you” flowers, you get me? I have plenty of money because it’s a team effort so I don’t really care how expensive they are. Just give me the worst flowers ever. Bonus if they smell really bad too.” 

Taking a moment to figure out the best way to deal with this odd request, and somewhat taken aback by how casually the customer had used an expletive in conversation with someone he didn’t know, Kuroo subtly checks him out. He’s tall and broad, strong arms crossed over his chest and covering the top half of his deep blue jersey – clearly some sort of sports team uniform, with a large number 4 in the middle. He wears black shorts and leggings (or perhaps particularly long kneepads, Kuroo can’t tell) that run up his muscular thighs, with blue and black trainers on his feet. 

Worst of all is this guy’s eyes – a deep golden colour, looking at Kuroo expectantly as he waits for an answer. Kuroo feels like he could get lost in those eyes forever. 

Strongly reminding himself that is a customer in his store, not some stranger at a bar, Kuroo clears his throat and bends down underneath the counter – partly to find something, partly to hide the deepening blush on his face. 

“Just one moment.” 

When he finds what he’s looking for he stands up, slapping a heavy catalogue down on the counter. The customer raises an eyebrow, looking at Kuroo inquisitively. 

“This is our stock keeping book. But the owner – my uncle – has written down what each flower represents in here as well. It’s always good to know for some of the arrangements we get asked for since it means we can make sure it matches the request.”

“That’s pretty cool,” the man says, stepping closer to the counter and peering at the pages as Kuroo flicks through. 

“So, uh… you know I never quite got your name?”

“Oh, its Bokuto. Bokuto Koutarou.” 

“Bokuto-san,” Kuroo says, stopping at one of the pages. “I think these might help with what you’re looking for.” He rotates the book so that Bokuto can see without having to read upside down, pointing at one of the flowers in particular. 

“These little pink ones are called peony’s. They’re very pretty but as you can see my uncle says you can use them to mean you’re angry at someone.”

“Perfect!” 

“Well, there’s some more too if you want to mix it up a little,” Kuroo continues, unable to help himself from smiling at the enthusiastic look on Bokuto’s face. “See here we also have oleander which means “you better watch out” or something along the lines. I’m thinking the white ones so that we don’t have an overdose of pink in there.” 

“Okay, yeah! That’s great!” 

“And we also have lavender – I’m sure you know what that is. They can signify distrust, so I'll scatter a few sprigs in there too. They'll smell a lot – not bad necessarily but pretty strong. Whoever’s getting these won’t be able to smell anything else for a while I can assure you.”

Bokuto claps his hands together, grinning brightly at Kuroo. “Alright! You’re awesome man!” 

Kuroo smiles back, closing the catalogue and placing it back under the counter. He walks into the backroom to collect the appropriate utensils and gets to work. 

He’d expected Bokuto to leave like most other customers do, opting to do their own thing before coming to collect the bunch when it was all put together. But to his surprise Bokuto stays, bombarding him with all sorts of questions; from learning his name to how he had come to work in the store, how long he had been working here, what started him working here, was it fun. All kinds of topics. Kuroo quickly learns that Bokuto is a highly inquisitive person who talks a lot. But he finds it endearing, enjoying the conversation in which they both learn more about each other.

“So do you have to know all of the different meanings for the different flowers? Or do most people just want cute stuff?” 

“Most people don’t really know look into it further than the display but my uncle always tells me it’s good to know what they mean anyway,” Kuroo replies, carefully placing sprinkles of white oleander into the peonies. “Just adds an extra touch I guess.” 

“And do you know a lot of them by heart and stuff? Or do you always have to use the book? Man, I’d never be able to remember any of it.” 

Kuroo laughs, fiddling with the arrangement. “I know quite a lot of it by heart now; I’ve been working here for a while after all. Sometimes the book just helps me make sure I’m absolutely using the right thing or gives me a hand when I get… unusual requests.” He smirks at Bokuto, who rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. 

“Heh, yeah… sorry about that.” 

“Nah, it’s fine.” After making a few tweaks to the display so far, Kuroo reaches for the lavender sprigs. “What’s the story behind this anyway? Someone must’ve really wound you up.” 

Bokuto’s face darkens and he frowns deeply. 

“So this guy on my team – volleyball team that is, the one at college – he’s really good and all but he says things that just piss me off you know like, he doesn’t really think before he says stuff and the other day, oh man just get a load of this, he—”

Kuroo listens in amusement to Bokuto’s tirade. Apparently this guy – Ushijima – had made some comment about the old rivalries his high school had had with some of the other player’s schools and it’d rubbed them all up the wrong way. Flowers seemed a little eccentric as payback to the insult but Kuroo figured Bokuto was a pretty eccentric guy – that much was easy enough to see just by looking at his hair, let alone listening to him talk.

“Anyway since Ushi’s such a country boy, Tooru – the team setter – said we should get this,” Bokuto finishes, gesturing vaguely towards the flowers. “Since he’d probably know what it meant and we wanted to let him know he’d really done it this time.” 

Kuroo suppresses the urge to laugh as he crosses the store to pick up some larger red flowers. Bokuto tilts his head in curiosity as Kuroo places these ones neatly around the rim of the basket. 

“You never mentioned those ones before.”

“These are red carnations,” Kuroo explains. “My uncle always told me they’re pretty flashy. I figure you’re a pretty flashy guy, so it fits.” He winks at Bokuto, smirking slightly. 

“What are flowers that mean you think someone’s cute?” 

Kuroo almost drops the bunch he’s holding. It’s just a simple, totally innocent question that probably means nothing. But Bokuto being so attractive… 

_It’s nothing_ , he thinks to himself. _Nothing_. Bokuto – loud, friendly, ridiculously attractive Bokuto – is _just a customer_. Just a customer in his store, probably asking because they’d been talking about different floral meanings before. What's the big deal? 

“I uh, well I haven’t really ever thought about that one,” Kuroo (lies) answers, his gaze fixed on the flowers in front of him. “But I guess pink roses would work.” 

“Hm.” Bokuto seems thoughtful, rather unsubtly looking towards the roses on the other side of the room before looking back at Kuroo. Kuroo pretends not to notice, finishing the last of the display. 

When done and entirely satisfied with his work, Kuroo stands and brushes off his hands. Bokuto smiles broadly at him as he places the flowers neatly in a special box, telling Bokuto all the things he needs to do in order to keep them fresh (as if he'll be the one taking care of them). Bokuto pays him and picks the box up from the counter, one arm supporting the base and the other around the box itself. 

“You need a hand with anything? Have you got a car to take it home in?” Kuroo looks at the sky in disdain, it having darkened considerably since Bokuto’s arrival. 

“Yep! It’s just around the corner. Anyway thanks Kuroo, I owe you one! You’re the best!” 

Kuroo waves as Bokuto leaves the shop. Of all the customers he’d ever served, he prayed this one came back soon. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later in the week, stormy skies replaced by radiant sunshine that dazzled through the windows, Kuroo hums softly to himself as he waters all of the flowers on display. He’d even left some displayed outside today in their large silver buckets, finally not having to worry about them being blown away in the wind. 

The bell above the door tinkles. Kuroo turns around, seeing the mailman smiling brightly at him. 

“Good morning Kuroo-san! I have a delivery for you.” 

Kuroo looks at the man in confusion. He can’t remember ordering anything for delivery recently. Perhaps it was for his uncle or something his uncle had sent to him – but even then, why would he send it to the store instead of his apartment? 

Nonetheless Kuroo places the watering can down and takes the package, signing when prompted so that the sender knows it's been received. He wishes the mailman a good day, ripping the packaging open as soon as he leaves. 

Underneath all of the packaging is a rectangular box, decorated in soft blue material and with a lighter blue bow. 

And inside of that, a bouquet of flowers. A dozen roses; 11 pink, 1 lavender. 

More than a little surprised, Kuroo picks up a note next to the flowers and begins to read. 

_Thanks for the other day! Ushiwaka knew exactly what the flowers meant – the look on his face was soooo funny when he told us. The best thing is he actually loves it and give us updates every day about how they’re all doing! I don’t know how Tooru makes it through practice; he can’t even look in Ushi’s direction without laughing. Iwa-chan tries to tell him off for being distracted but I’ve caught him laughing too, when Ushi isn’t looking._

Kuroo laughs out loud, shaking his head before reading on.

_Anyway, I think you’re really cool and you’re so clever knowing all these things. I think you’re really cute too, although you can probably tell by the roses… I had to add the purple one too because man… maybe it’s kinda lame since we don’t even really know each other much yet, but I really like you Kuroo. You’re so cool. And I really want to get to know you more._

Kuroo, whose face quickly turns as pink as the roses, covers his ridiculously wide smile with one hand and skims over the rest of the note quickly. Bokuto told him he was keen to learn more about the ‘cool flower stuff’ and asked him on a first date, leaving his number at the end. As soon as he’s finished reading Kuroo takes his phone from his pocket and texts the number – a simple message but one he was sure will be understood. 

_Yes. I’ll see you there. How’s 6.30?_

_Flower boy x_

_p.s. nice touch with the lavender rose – me too :-)_

**Author's Note:**

> Lavender rose - 'love at first sight'. Because Bokuto and Kuroo (and myself) are lame as hell ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ


End file.
